Deaddmwalking toys with the window for some time. He's given up on trying to kick it out of the frame, but he does spend some effort inspecting the frame while Talanall makes his calls. He tries running a blade around the edge, hoping perhaps that he can separate the frame from the surrounding building by cutting out a sealant. It proves to be an effective distraction, but ultimately yields no results. Once Talanall hangs up for the final time, deadDMwalking very casually picks up a chair and bashes it against the window. The glass cracks in a very intricate spider web pattern. A few more strikes with the chair and the glass is mostly gone from the frame altogether. Brett pokes his head out of the window, inspecting the building below to assess the ease with which the group could scale downward, if need be. It looks scary as hell, but doesn't look too difficult for healthy adults that aren't at all afraid of heights.

Suddenly, Brett throws himself painfully to the ground. "DOWN! GET DOWN!" As everyone scrambles to the floor, he explains further. "We're not getting out the window. They've got snipers. I don't think they want any one explaining what happened here. We need to go - and go now. Out the door. And don't think that the government is going to protect us if we can make it out of the quarantine zone alive."

At the mention of snipers, Fixxxer animates. He literally pushes Crimison off the bed into the little space between the bed and the wall and follows her down, all the while repeating "fuckfuckfuckfuck."

After a pause, he speaks up, absently. "Shit. I think one of those goons rolled me for my iPhone."

"I'd be happier if I saw them. They're well concealed. I saw their laser sight lighting me up. And it didn't take long before they painted me as a target. I'd like to find out more, but it doesn't seem wise." Brett powers down his phone than pulls the battery. "One of the advantages of an Android." Still pressed against the ground he makes sure the drapes are fully closed and the room is as dark as possible. "So, I change my vote. Let's try the stairs."

"Agreed," Talanall says, getting to his feet. He grabs his day pack and slings it over his shoulders, then rifles through Didge's wallet. Without so much as a qualm, he takes David's cash, and any credit cards he has on hand. Then he repeats the same process for the ugly who'd been carrying a wallet.

Between them both, Talanall manages to get $38 in various bills as well as a couple of plastic cards.

Once the immediate threat of danger has passed, Fixxxer gets up and helps Crimison to her feet, checking to make sure he didn't hurt her when she shoved her off the bed. "They were using a laser sight?" he asks deadDMwalking. "That's really not usual. They're accurate until the first time you fart, then they make you shoot off. Good snipers don't use them."

Frowning, Talanall says, "No, that's a point. Matt, you were a tactical shooter in the Marines, right? Shit, I hate an information vacuum."

He stares at nothing in particular, thinking for a moment, then asks, "Okay, I don't see how it would change anything. Either it's a poorly trained shooter, or someone is in one of the nearby towers with a laser pointer. We're going to avoid spending time in the open, so it doesn't materially affect what we're going to do right now. At best, it's evidence that someone is alive in a neighboring tower. It's probably not a government sharpshooter, so I'll call it good news overall. Let's get the hell downstairs before we lose our nerve."

Crimison powers down her phone and chews on her lip. "I don't know how to pull the battery but it should be good enough?"
"I'm ready to get the fuck out of here." She accepts Fixxxer's hand up and grabs her purse.

"Can't really pull the battery from an iPhone. Powered down will have to do. We'll need them if we make it out. Or at least, I will. I've got a contact about three hops down from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He's a civvie, but involved in the military intelligence community. Maybe he has enough stroke to pull us out of the shit."

Sighing, he adds, "If they really want us, they'll find us. Make no mistake about that. Just a matter of how long it takes and who we can call before they do it. We might be able to put it off and widen the circle enough so it won't hurt too bad."

"Not much we can do about snipers," says Fixxxer as he double checks that his weapon is chambered and ready. "Except keep under cover. Anyone would comes at us better worry. We can damn sure do something about them." He gives a knowing nod to drumandfight as he speaks and lines himself up for a good shot through the door if one is needed.

Talanall checks the peep hole and swings the swivel bolt into place and with a sigh, opens the door a crack to peek out. Nothing jumps out at him. He carefully opens the door the rest of the way that the lock will allow. After a moment, he's relatively certain that there isn't a potential threat right outside the door. He shuts the door long enough to disengage the swivel bolt and then, staying low, he opens the door and risks a peek around the corners. To the east, he sees a broken body perhaps ten feet down the hall, with another perhaps fifteen feet further, leaning on the short wall that protects guests from a drop to the lobby below. A third body lies in a pool of blood on the balcony leading to the elevator bank. The area is littered with bloody footprints leading off in every direction. When he turns to the west, he just makes out the retreating form of a person rounding the column to the westernmost side of the building.

Quietly, everyone moves as Talanall instructs, keeping close and filing out of the room one by one. In an inauspicious start to your escape, though, Crimison holds the door open for deadDMwalking, but makes a miscalculation that results in the door shutting loudly. Instinctively, Taalanall shushes her before thinking. Both sounds echo loudly in the deathly quiet of the open atrium.

Both Fixxxer and Talanall hold up a hand indicating everyone should wait quietly to see what happens. As it turns out, it's nothing, not immediately anyway. Chaos does not erupt from all over the hotel, as might have been expected by the sudden intrusion of noise. But just when you are getting ready to release your held breath, a curious figure emerges from around the column in the western "corner" of the hallway, seemingly without fear or concern for the danger of his surroundings. His clothing (a pirate costume) is disheveled and he looks like he might have broken his nose. Worse, he's carelessly holding what is unmistakably a human arm that looks like it was likely torn right from the shoulder.

Everyone pauses as the figure rounds the column. DeadDMwalking immediately looks to Talanall, perhaps hoping for a quick solution. Drumandfight puts up his hand in a paramilitary gesture and pats his hand down softly, obviously motioning for a stand down. Darker takes the hint and nods, but that doesn't stop him from bringing up his weapon, just in case. Talanall likewise waits to see what will happen, but he's obviously tense and ready for the worst. "Don't shoot," he says. "You'll bring them all down on us. If he charges, we dog pile onto him and beat him to death." Brett seems to take that as a sign and he brings is hands up in an offensive posture.

As the guy in the pirate getup rounds the column, you notice that his head twitches like tweeker on a meth binge and it breathes heavy and wet through its broken nose. The twitching stops when it very obviously notices you. It charges forward quickly, growling loudly and swinging the severed arm it's holding like Casey Jones. As it gets close to Talanall, he raises the makeshift club above his head, preparing to bring it down hard. With an insane degree of control, Talanall waits until this opening before he drives his fist forward in the man's face in a blow that flattens his already broken nose. The gamble doesn't pay off well for Ed, since the tradeoff is that the crazy is easily able to bring the improvised weapon down right on top of his head. Hard. With a sickening snapping noise, Talanall's teeth click together and he drops like a rag doll, breathing but also bleeding from his ear.

Switching "Milla" to his off hand, Darker steps forward, ready to knock the arm-swinging crazy silly. The man whirls, lashing out at him with the severed arm, but like a boss, Darker ducks under the swing and retaliates. He lands a glancing blow to the man's jaw.

"Back inside!" Fixxxer hisses to Crimison. He brings his Sig up, ready to ventilate the crazy's face, but with Darker so close, he's too concerned about his shot. Instead, he steps forward to straddle Talanall's crumpled form and swings his weapon for the fences in a blow that would level a charging rhino. And misses by a country mile. It's obvious from the way he immediately grabs his bandaged neck that the action caused him some pain.

Crimison takes a moment to look around rather than focusing on the threat at hand. She apparently doesn't like what she sees. "Guns up, guys!" she says sharply, pointing toward the elevator bank. "There's more coming." With that she disappears back into the hotel room.

Finally broken of indecision, deadDMwalking rushes forward. While the maniac is focused on Darker, he loops one arm quickly around Talanall's chest and grabs him by the belt with his other hand. He very quickly backs away, dragging Talanall with him and pushes the room door back open with his butt.

Drumandfight looks for all the world like he's going to launch himself with reckless abandon at the aggressor that put Talanall out and he tenses up to do just that, but after a second's consideration he decides that he's no good to anyone if he's knocked silly again... or worse. With a sour look on his face, he retreats back through the hotel room door.

A thin line of blood continues to trickle from Talanall's ear.

With single-minded determination, the crazed pirate keeps swinging with its morbid weapon. Darker is fast, but he's not quite fast enough and he catches the end of the severed arm on his shoulder with a meaty thumping noise.

Perhaps even worse than that, Darker and Fixxxer get a nasty surprise when Crimison's warning proves correct. Three other forms come piling across the atrium bridge near the elevators, clearly intent on getting to the two remaining non-crazy people in sight.

Darker yells at Matt, "Get the fuck in the room! I got your back." And back into the room "Get ready to shut the door behind us!"

For his own part, Fixxxer seems to have no problems doing exactly that. Keeping his hands up in front of him, he backs up quickly, careful not to get slammed or grabbed by the crazy, and slides back into the hotel room. Equally carefully Darker disengages himself as well and ducks into the room as well.

Crimison launches forward and slams the door, locking both the bolt and the slide. As Talanall continues to bleed, she whirls from the door and drops to her knees next to him. She shoos everyone back and has a quick look. Darker tries to help, but mostly ends up fumbling around. Despite this, KC seems to have a good idea what to do. She takes Talanall by the hair and pulls him upward, bringing his head well above the level of his heart, and then turns his head to the side so his bloody ear can finish draining. After a few seconds, the dripping stops. This is when the pounding on the door begins.

She does a remarkable job of ignoring it, though. Conscripting Fixxxer as muscle, she gets him into the shower and runs cold water over his head, explaining that it might help reduce the inevitable swelling. This also has the added benefit of waking Edward up quite efficiently. He is dizzy, hears things like he's wearing earmuffs and his head feels like it might have been the mattress upon which two Abrams tanks made violent love to one another, but he's at least conscious.

"You know, when Fixxxer invited us here, I had my suspicions that one or more of us would end up in the shower with him. This isn't the way I pictured it going down." The situation outside doesn't seem to bother Brett, at least not particularly. The fact that half the group is sporting emergency room level injuries doesn't seem to have phased him, much. That, or resignation is beginning to set in.

"So, here's what has been bothering me - if we can figure this out, I think we have a chance. How do they know who's infected or not. If I walk around like I'm totally relaxed holding someone's arm in my hand, will they leave me alone? I haven't seen a single one attack another of the infected. Theories?"

Crimison dabs Talanalls face with a dry towel. She indicates to Fixxxer to sit him on the toilet.
Answering Brett she replies, "could be smell." She pokes her head out of the bathroom an asks, "does anyone have a flashlight?"

Looking at Brett, "Well if its a virus doing this, it obvious takes over the hosts body... the insane behavior means that the host will most likely attack and bite another potential host, insuring continued replication. Since attacking a host that's already infected isn't going to further the virus's goal of replication, it would have some kind of fail safe that would prevent it from happening. Otherwise two infected would just attack each other until unable to move and the virus would die."

"I think Crimson is right. The virus alters chemicals in the brain, it most likely makes changes in the associated glands too and other crazies can detect them with something like a vomeronasal organ. Like pheromones."

Although his gaze is a little unfocused, both his pupils seem to be the same size, as he asks, apropos of nothing, "Are the other kids talking about zombie stink? They should spray them with some deo . . ." his brows knit, "dee ooohh, uh. Um. Shit. Can't remember the word."

From the bathroom you hear Crimison listing iff ideas apparently to herself.
"1. We kick our way through the rooms to the stairs. This might be the safest plan *if* there are no zoms in the adj rooms. The problem with that is we can't really fill up holes if we run into trouble.. Well aside from using mattress.
2. We try and go out in the hallway again and deal with the 4 zombs. We can try to make a mattress/boxspring barricade a d see if we can take them out with various shit we have in the room. I'm not sure how many bullets we have left but the Tv might take out one of them at least. Or, we can attempt to open the door and ram them over the edge and balcony below... Drum would be best suited for this sice he's the strongest..
3. We wait another night to heal up and try again. Everyone is hurting pretty bad."
Crimison trails off and resumes her vigil. She brings a glass of water to Fixxxer and Talanall.

Drum walks over to Tal and checks him out. "I won't let those fuckers outside make it hurt worse, you'll be alright, buddy."

"We have supplies enough to stay another night and try to heal up, but there has to be a first aid kit somewhere by. I am willing to bet that the next room is free of zombies - I am sure we would have heard them try and beat through that door," he says the last part as he points to the doors connecting the hotel rooms. "We have made enough noise anyway, and shit, who knows, they may have something we can use. It is better than sitting here with our thumbs up our proverbial asses."

"I'm getting hungry. Starving to death may take 14 days, but I'm going to turn into a monster and kill you all myself if I don't eat in 48 hours. I think we should go to the next room. Start with a small hole. Next, I'll slip out, covered in blood and gore from one of the zombies. I'll try to act like one of them and see if I can make it to the kitchen. Failing that, you can all see me get torn apart by zombies."

Darker raise Milla and uses her to point at the wall at a spot close enough to reach through and unlock the joining door. "Lets start cutting through there - we can unlock the door. But I suggest we knock and listen for movement in response first. If something starts peeking through the hole that doesn't respond to us asking politely, I'll put a bullet in its eye socket."

After considering whether to do the job himself or not, drumandfight finally ends up doing as deadDMwalking asks. With Darker nearby to keep a close watch on what's going on down the sights of Newby's weapon, Brett begins dragging the saw blade of his multitool across the drywall in a series of X-shaped patterns.

"Well, there goes my deposit," jokes Fixxxer.

With a cheeky grin, Brett slides on Jeff's brass knuckles and begins tapping them against the wall, applying more force each time until he's through the drywall. Unfortunately for him, he ends up hitting a metal stud beneath the first sheet of drywall. It's a simple matter for him to move a few inches to the right and repeat the process, though he's reasonably certain it will no longer be a simple matter of reaching through the hole to grab the door handle.

Still, he doesn't hit a stud this time around and he gets into the second piece of drywall with no apparent problems. He's easily able to force his saw through the back of the drywall and begin a rough hole. It won't win any beauty contests, but when he's done punching it out, he's created a clean hole about the size of a softball.

A quick scan through the hole reports to him that if someone is in the next room over, they're either in the bathroom, just below the hole or otherwise hiding very effectively.

Crimison steps out of the bathroom for a minute and waiting for a break in the hammering and the conversation she presses her head against the wall and a finger against her lips. She indicates the others should do the same.

After an appropriate amount of quiet time, Crimison is convinced that if anyone is in the room next door, they'd have to have been raised by a secret cabal of silent death ninjas and forced to complete daily exercises in stealth before being allowed to play their Nintendos. She hears nothing through the wall. Likewise, no movement on the other side makes itself known to any viewers through the shiny new hole in the wall.

Still speaking somewhat more loudly than normal as a result of his ear injury, Talanall comments, "So. The next room's empty, right? I'd kick down the door, except I'm kind of dizzy and would just fall on my ass."

"Well, it is most likely empty; however we don't know the condition of their hallway door. Or what we will find on the other side..." As cautious as he sounds, it is obvious that the smarter part of Jeff's brain is arguing with the more impulsive. "I guess I could just kick this fucker down. Let me see hands, who wants it kicked down and who wants to try to make the hole bigger and fit an arm through?"